Timeless style: An Ivy cottage gets ready to welcome guests
When Justin Rood went house-hunting in Charlottesville, he looked really hard. Many dozens of properties into his search, he still hadn’t found just the right place—but not because he was picky. Intending to create a vacation rental in an older house, he needed to find a rare combination of location, character and function to serve […]
Expanding the limits: A second structure can be a dramatic improvement
If your house sits on a small city lot, it may seem as though there’s little room to expand. After all, city regulations limit how much of your lot may be developed, plus the height of secondary structures relative to your house. But don’t give up hope. One recent project by Alloy Workshop demonstrates that […]
Bigger size, bigger style: Refreshing how Scarpa looks —and works
There are a few iconic local retailers in Charlottesville, and Amy Gardner’s store, Scarpa, is one of them. The women’s boutique—which started out selling shoes nearly 23 years ago and recently expanded into clothing—has been a mainstay in the north wing of Barracks Road Shopping Center, and in the Charlottesville imagination, as a bastion of […]
Lewis and Clark condo includes an homage to art-world star who called it home
When Bonnie Bond bought her condo in the Lewis and Clark Building downtown in 2012, she faced an unusual situation. Not only was the two-bedroom unit due for routine updates—the building was built in 1989, and the flooring and cabinetry reflected their age—the condo bore the marks of its previous, and very notable, owner. Artist, […]
Immortal words: At Montpelier, a place for ‘We, the people’ to learn—and record
It’s a special opportunity to hear a luminary speak in person, but for Kat Imhoff, president of James Madison’s Montpelier, it’s a shame to hear those words evaporate without being captured in a recording. Like, say, when Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice, spoke to a group of […]
Cottage character: Lots to love at an Ivy country place
“The most interesting faces generally oscillate between charm and crookedness,” writes Alain de Botton in his Essays in Love. Replace “crookedness” with “quirkiness,” and you’ll have a fair description of why we’re drawn to this listing in Ivy: It it isn’t intimidatingly perfect. It’s lovely but not bland, and it feels real. Sited at the […]
The new rustic: In Keswick, a traditional barn structure reimagined—inside and out
There are upsides and downsides to having a barn as the starting point for a house. Upside: that great barn shape. In the case of the Red Barn project, on the grounds of Castle Hill Cidery in Keswick, that form makes for an iconic and historic statement in the landscape. Downside: Iconic and historic barns […]
Shape shift: A ‘rural loft’ in a reimagined horse stable
The farm was inspiring, in part because of what wasn’t there anymore. Roxanne Sherbeck and Jon Jackson bought a 19-acre property near Charlottesville in 2010, and as they got to know it, they started to realize that it was dotted with the decomposing stumps and logs of oak trees. The absence of those trees—or the […]
Barns and barrels: Two local reclaimed lumber projects
Reclaimed wood has been a hot item for years now. Most people are familiar with the idea of giving old wood, from barns or other sources, new life. Most often, the salvaged stuff ends up as flooring, though cabinetry, furniture and ceilings are also big. But the folks at Mountain Lumber, the Ruckersville company that’s […]
Random Row Brewing Co. brings you closer to your pint
Customers at a small local brewery might enjoy seeing how their lagers and pale ales are actually brewed. That’s what the folks behind Random Row Brewing Co. were betting on when they designed their tasting room on Preston Avenue, which opened in mid-September. Gleaming metal tanks are a major design element in the space, which […]
Down by the river: Sweet details in Woolen Mills
We don’t know about you, but when we hear the not-too-charming term “condo,” we tend to conjure images of dwellings that are longer on convenience than character. You know—concrete balconies, underground parking, stacked washer/dryer, that sort of thing. Well, along comes a condo that shatters the stereotype. Let’s start by considering the neighborhood. We all […]
The light touch: A few small changes make a kitchen all new
Designer Wendi Smith found not just good but excellent bones to start with when she tackled a recent kitchen redo. And that was lucky, because the look of this kitchen was very different from what her client ultimately wanted. “She definitely has a style,” says Smith of her client. “She likes neutral and calm colors; […]
Lean & green: In a sustainable house, a minimal palette keeps things cool
When one Charlottesville couple started building a house in December 2014, they had a front-row seat to the construction: Their new house was going up in what had been a vacant lot right next door to their old house. In their case, having daily contact with the building process was welcome—they’d been highly involved with […]
Living in the past at a one-time Kluge nest
Every place has a history, but the past at some homes looms especially large. In Albemarle County, the name Kluge is synonymous with lavish wealth, wine and, unfortunately, bankruptcy. Locals—and the rest of the country—watched the fortune of Patricia Kluge rise and fall over her three decades or so in town, and a curious byproduct […]
From STEM to STREAM: Charlottesville Catholic School expands the possibilities
Time was, when students at Charlottesville Catholic School wanted to do a science experiment, they’d have to contend with the elements. “Students would be heating minerals over an open flame,” recalls Principal Michael Riley. “They’d use a Petri dish with an alcohol flame. They’d be doing it outside”—because there wasn’t a properly ventilated spot indoors—“and […]
Welcome surprise: In Bundoran, a log cabin comes out of hiding
Talk about a bonus buy: Jeff and Ivy Levien bought a 30-acre parcel at Bundoran Farm in 2012, and only later realized that it came with a historic log cabin. To be precise, the Leviens knew that the building existed, but they figured it for a teardown. Several contractors had concurred with that view, and […]
It’s all in the mix: A traditional house gets a modern facelift
A 1942 Marshall Wells-designed home in tony Farmington: What could be more traditional? Except when it isn’t. For the last three years, designer Kathy Heiner of KLH Designs has been transforming this home in collaboration with its owners, making it a showcase for an eclectic, unfussy style. “This house is all about friends and family,” says […]
Design on display: A Nelson home becomes an art collector’s haven
When Kristen and Glenn Martin dropped their daughter off to begin her college career at the University of Virginia in 2013, they weren’t planning on renovating a house in Nelson County’s Stoney Creek development. But, less two years later, that’s what the Pennsylvania residents found themselves doing. “It was very outdated,” says Glenn of the […]
One step at a time: An Albemarle County landscape takes shape in phases
Time is always a key element in landscape: Plants grow and change, seasons come and go. In some cases, it takes time for a design to bloom, too. That was true at Shady Lawn, a Western Albemarle property where landscape architect Anna Boeschenstein, of Grounded, created a master plan five years ago. Her design is […]
Above it all: Off the parkway, a character of a house
A lovely view is lovely, but a spectacular one might be life-changing. Think we exaggerate? Get ye to Elk Mountain Road in Afton on a clear day, and feast your eyes on the kind of vista that can truly alter your outlook. Number 885, which faces east from a lot just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, […]
A workplace that works: Design co-op settles into the Treehouse
Ten Flavors, a co-op that includes 11 mostly design-related businesses, has been around for about 35 years. Members have come and gone, and the co-op has moved offices several times, always on the Downtown Mall. But Jim Gibson, a longtime co-op member, says the Ten Flavors folks really, really liked their last home, a high-ceilinged […]
A finer farmhouse: Making an 1800s home function for the millennium
This place looks nothing like a hay barn. Yet there was a time, at some point in the early 20th century, when the Somerset farmhouse now belonging to David and Sissy Perdue was in fact used to store hay. Built in the 1880s as a two-over-two home for a family of chicken farmers, the house […]
Time travel: A country landscape spans the centuries
The weekend home of a Washington, D.C., couple sits not quite in the middle of their 76-acre property north of Charlottesville. They didn’t choose the most lofty site for their cottage, but instead gravitated toward a spot that snuggles into a treeline and offers a broad, rolling view of fields and woods. “This was our […]
Vinegar Hill, the sequel: Designing a second life for a beloved theater
When Vinegar Hill Theatre closed its doors in 2013 after 37 years of showing independent films, many cinephiles in Charlottesville mourned its loss. So when the downtown building became the home of Light House Studio in May 2015, says Light House’s Brooks Wellmon, “There was a ton of community interest in preserving the theater.” Light […]
Road warrior: Sizing up potential in a tricky location near the 250 Bypass
The first very important question for would-be buyers of 622 Watson Ave. is this: How much imagination do you have? The question is key because the house, a 1930 foursquare, is ripe for a reno. It’s one of the older houses on the street, and in general it’s not the handsomest feller at the hoedown. […]
Sweet spot: Lynn Easton’s city house revels in a woodsy landscape
The old saw about real estate—“location, location, location”—also sums up what Dean Andrews and Lynn Easton Andrews appreciate about their house. They love the neighborhood, Lewis Mountain; they love the landscape that surrounds their home; and they love the spot it occupies in Charlottesville history. “We are crazy for it,” says Lynn. That’s not to […]
Cabin comfort: The early American house, circa 1990
We’re conditioned to think certain thoughts when we see a log house: wilderness, rugged individualism and bootstraps by which someone is ascending. Yet it’s been a long time since hardy frontier settlers constructed theirs from fresh-felled trees. We never see cabins in cities, but that’s just a convention at this point—modern log homes can be […]